Better Than Revenge
by akmdreamer
Summary: Ginny's thoughts and...ah...ventings...on Harry and Cho in OotP. SONGFIC! Better Than Revenge by Taylor Swift. EDITED! R&R


**DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harry Potter…all rights go to J.K. Rowling. I don't own Better Than Revenge, either. Taylor Swift does.**

**A/N: Takes place in The Order of the Phoenix. Ginny's feelings about Cho and Harry. I thought this song was fitting. Enjoy! R&R**

**A/N: Hey guys! I've had this posted for some time, and have been EXTREMELY unsatisfied with the ending. Actually, I kind of despised it with utter loathing. :) So...I'm re-doing it. Hope its to your liking!**

**~Ari**

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><p><span>Better Than Revenge<span>

_Now go stand in a corner and _think _about what you did._

_Ha_

_Ha ha_

_Time for a little revenge!_

Ginevra Weasley had had enough. She marched from the D.A. room, not bothering to suppress her tears.

She was done dealing with Cho bloody Chang and her smug nastiness, done being jealous of the older girl, who seemed to get everything that Ginny wanted, and done - absolutely _done_ pretending with Harry Potter.

For two years, she'd tried everything to get herself to think of him as a close friend - for they had become quite close - but to no avail.

There was simply no way to get around it anymore: She loved him.

And Cho had him.

But that didn't mean she was giving up, taking the other girl's insults and taunts - because she had a lot of those for Ginny - lying down.

She had a plan.

_The story starts when it was hot and it was summer and_

_I had it all I had him right there where I wanted him_

_She came along got him alone and lets hear the applause:_

_She took him faster than you can say sabotage!_

She supposed it had all started during the summer. When Harry had come to Grimmauld Place, things had been…different. That year, she could talk to him even more easily than the year before, when their conversations had occasionally been made awkward when a dangerous subject came up, subjects of certain natures that Harry could not discuss freely.

Now, though, there was little one had yet to learn about the other. They had spent long hours in the kitchen and Drawing Room of Number 12 getting to know each other, and had become as quite close as Harry, Ron and Hermione were.

But Ginny had thought that perhaps…just maybe…there might have been the hint of something more than friendship. The way Harry looked at her, sometimes…the secret smiles they shared, the pranks they pulled, the laughter and the tears….

It was foolish, Ginny thought vehemently in hindsight. Utter nonsense, of course. She'd promised herself in the summer before her third year, his fourth, that she would never think of him as anything but a friend. That hadn't worked. Yes, she'd gotten over the silly, hero-worship crush…that had ended long ago. That was when she started to get to know _Harry_. Just Harry. And she'd fallen for him, hard.

Now he had a girlfriend, a perfect girlfriend, the kind you'd expect a hero to have, and she felt like she was back to feeling like Ron's Little Sister, even though she knew he thought of her as a close friend, one with whom he'd shared a harrowing experience, one whom he could confide in, one who would always be there for him, and fight with him, and never leave his side.

_I never saw it coming_

_Wouldn't have suspected it_

_I underestimated just who I was dealing with_

_She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum_

_She underestimated just who she was stealing from!_

Ginny had been forced to watch the happy couple stealing looks and kisses all through the D.A. meeting, been forced to attempt cheery replies to Michael, but she felt like every second was some bizarre form of torture.

Now, she folded her knees up to her chest outside on the grounds, under a tree near Hagrid's cabin, and let herself cry a bit, then satisfied her savage anger and dislike by listing all the different hexes she'd use on Cho Chang given the chance.

Ginny admitted she'd known exactly what Cho was like, exactly who Cho wanted, but she'd

refused to believe that the girl could actually get what she wanted. She was such an obvious fake, and Harry really was quite intelligent, but still…clueless when it came to girls.

But Cho didn't know the youngest Weasley.

_She's not a saint and she's not what you think_

_She's an actress_

_Who-oa!_

_She's better known for the things that she does_

_On the mattress_

_Who-oa!_

_Soon she's gonna find stealing other people's toys on the playground won't make you many friends_

_She should keep in mind_

_She should keep in mind_

_There is nothing I do better than revenge!_

Cho Chang was pretty. She was smart and funny and a Ravenclaw, and a really good Quidditch player, and she was also Cedric Diggory's ex girlfriend.

Harry blamed himself for Cedric's death, to some extent, Ginny knew. But he was now going out with the poor boy's ex? That was some sickening manipulation on Chang's part, as far as Ginny was concerned. Wasn't it a bit early to be moving on? She still cried her eyes out over him every chance she got! Ginny also happened to know that Cho had liked both Cedric and Harry, and hadn't been able to decide for quite some time whom she liked better.

Death had made that decision for her, in a way, and now she was "happily" dating Harry, while still mourning Cedric. What, Ginny thought harshly, was wrong with the girl? Was it some sort of game? If it was, and if her game came at the expense of Harry's physical, mental, or emotional well-being, Merlin help Cho Chang, because Ginny Weasley was known for her Bat-Bogie Hexes, and would do just about anything for a certain Harry James Potter.

Nobody would dare cross the fiery redhead, which meant nobody crossed her friends in any way.

Revenge was one of Ginny's strong points, to say the least.

_She looks at life like it's a party and she's on the list_

_She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's "so over it!"_

_I think her ever-present frown is a little troubling_

_She thinks I'm psycho 'cause I like to rhyme her name with things!_

Cho seemed to think she could butt in anywhere she wanted, didn't she? Ginny thought the following day as she squeezed her slim little form between Harry and herself as they walked to the Great Hall for dinner, effectively cutting Ginny, Ron, and Hermione off from Harry and Cho.

Who did she think she was?

Ginny cleared her throat loudly as Cho reached up to snog him full on the lips right there in the middle of the corridor.

Cho turned to face Ginny, her arms still latched around Harry's neck.

"Hate to interrupt, but you two lovebirds are causing a blockage in the halls at mealtime," Ginny said in a falsely-cheery tone, attempting a teasing smirk at Harry and thinking she might have pulled it off.

Harry blushed. "Right, yeah," he laughed, looking at her with…was that…guilt in those gorgeous green eyes of his?

Ginny flushed and turned away quickly, hurrying into the Hall.

"Ginny Weasley, right?" Cho asked, moving away from Harry to fall into step with Ginny.

"Yes, Cho. I suppose we've never met properly?" Ginny replied politely, wishing nothing more than to whip out her wand, say a few choice words, and enjoy the pleasure of watching Cho run from quite a few very insistent Bat-Bogies.

"No, I suppose not," the older student answered, seeming to size Ginny up with a hint of a sneer that was well-hidden from the others.

She frowned at Ginny in a threatening manner, and leaned close, hissing in her ear, "You stay away from my boyfriend, Weasley. I see how you look at him….He's mine, and always will be!"

Ginny's expression didn't waver as they parted ways, Cho giving Harry a lingering kiss and dashing towards the Ravenclaw table, the others settling down at the Gryffindor table.

"What was that about, Gin?" Hermione asked as they sat down, very quietly so as to not alert the boys.

"Later," Ginny said as the food appeared.

So it was that later that same evening, Ginny and Hermione were sprawled around Ginny's dormitory with two of the younger girls' dorm mates, Harper and Amy Carson, a pair of twins and two of Ginny's close friends.

Harper and Amy were both platinum-blondes with coy, mischievous, sparkling pastel-green eyes, rather like two cats. While Harper's hair fell just a little past her shoulders, Amy's spilled in loose waves down to her mid-back, with side-bangs framing her elfish little face. The two were both dating, much to most of the male population of Hogwarts' disappointment: Harper one of the Chasers of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and Amy the new Seeker for the Hufflepuffs.

The four girls settled down on the floor in a tight circle, and Hermione coiled an arm around Ginny's shoulders as the older, wiser sister Ginny had always wanted.

"Spill, Gin," Hermione said seriously, her brown eyes sparkling with concern for her friend. She had known about Ginny's feelings for Harry, and had seen Cho's behavior towards Ginny. Also, having rather a knack for spotting excellent couples, was experiencing quite an annoyance with Harry at the moment for his rather blind attitude for what she called "his true feelings".

Ginny's own radar for perfect couples harbored a bit of a lapse where herself and Harry were concerned, and she adamantly denied that he had, did, or ever would have "feelings" for her, much to Hermione's chagrin.

Ginny told them everything she'd been feeling recently regarding Harry and Cho, and then explained what Cho had said to her.

Harper's face hardened, ever protective. "The little -" she broke off at the look Hermione was giving her. "Fine. But she's a jerk."

"She is," Hermione conceded, "but you mustn't worry, Ginny, she's probably full of empty threats. I…really don't like that girl."

Ginny sighed. "All year long, I've been forced to tease Harry about his crush, give him advice, and say, "Yeah, Harry, you go get her!", but I've really been…hating her. And I hate myself for it sometimes."

"We should break them up," Amy suggested, her eyes glinting maliciously.

"As much as I'd love to…no," Ginny stated firmly. "He's happy. I don't want to hurt him. I can't…It would be betraying him, and he's my friend. One of my best friends."

"Ginny's right. If it were anyone else, I'd say go for it, but Harry…absolutely not," Hermione said.

"Would you if it were Ron?" Ginny asked shrewdly.

"Don't!" Hermione cried. "Not now…."

Ginny sighed. "Okay, okay. Well, at least we can settle for rhyming her name with awful things and trying to find an excuse to hex her," she added cheerfully.

Everyone laughed.

"Cho…Cho….Er…Cho the Crow," Hermione suggested.

Amy giggled. "Cho the Hoe!"

"Cho the Dope?" Harper tried.

Ginny snickered. "Harper, sweetie, you've never had a way with words…."Cho" and "dope" don't rhyme."

_But sophistication isn't what you wear or who you know_

_Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go_

_Oh, they didn't teach you this in prep school so it's up to me_

_But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity!_

Ginny and Hermione watched a little distance away as Harry and Cho made their leisurely way into the Great Hall the next morning (a Saturday) for breakfast. Harry had his arm around her, and leaned over the girl a little, laughing with her over something.

Ginny turned her head and faked gagging.

"Will you look at them?" Hermione muttered, sounding half-infuriated, half-disgusted. "What he sees in her is beyond me!"

"Glad someone agrees with me," Ginny replied in a soft voice.

The Crow thought she was so sophisticated, didn't she? She was the prim, pretty, perfect…prat.

But, Ginny thought, she needed a lesson in sophistication, and Ginny would be more than happy to teach her.

Cho seemed to think that the way she dressed, or the people she was friends made her "sophisticated", but it was shallow imagery.

Her "best friend", Marietta Edgecomb, was a popular Ravenclaw who's parents worked for Fudge, and who was the picture of what the Ministry of Magic would call a "perfect student with admirable ambitions".

In other words, she was a lying, nasty, condescending little jerk who would do anything to get to the top of the proverbial ladder.

There were two reasons, as far as Ginny could discern, that Cho liked Harry: One was because dating him made her look…mysterious. Not necessarily good given the present climate, but rather, an enigma. She was dating The Boy Who Lived, the one who's sanity was under debate, the boy who claimed Lord Voldemort had returned.

The second was that he was - nobody could deny it - one of Hogwarts' best looking boys.

It sickened Ginny to think that Cho didn't even give a damn about Harry's personality, story, or life, so long as she stayed in it, and looking good. As long as she was sitting pretty on his arm, she didn't care.

She was all about image.

_She's not a saint_

_And she's not what you think_

_She's an actress_

_Who-oa!_

_She's better known for the things that she does on the mattress_

_Who-oa!_

_Soon she's gonna find stealing other people's toys on the playground won't make her any friends_

_She should keep in mind_

_She should keep in mind_

_There is nothing I do better than revenge!_

Harry seemed to think that Cho was some sort of saint, Ginny pondered, watching the two again during lunchtime the same day. Harry always talked about her as if she were a brave heroine, some sort of wonderful person…how she didn't hate him because of Cedric…how she was moving on so well, and fighting for their cause…she wasn't! She was a self-righteous, manipulative, vindictive girl, thought Ginny angrily, and promptly lost her appetite, shoving her plate away from her with more force than it deserved and watching it clatter against the serving platter in front of her.

_I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey,_

_You might have him but haven't you heard?_

_I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey,_

_You might have him but I always get the last word!_

_Who-o-o-oa!_

Each time Ginny passed Cho in the hall, the older Ravenclaw would give the sprightly redhead a patronizing, infuriating look, or else smile in a sickly-sweet manner. When around her friends, though, Cho would simply roll her eyes in such a superior way that Ginny thought she must be taking lessons from Malfoy, eliciting many high-pitched, annoying giggles from her group of girls.

_Well, she may,_ Ginny thought scathingly, _but she won't be the one with that satisfaction once this is over. And it's _not _over._

Ginevra Weasley _always _got the last word, and this time would be no exception.

_Do you still feel like_

_You know what you're doing?_

'_Cause I don't think you do, oh!_

_Do you still feel like you know what you're doing?_

_I don't think you do, I don't think you do_

_Let's hear the applause._

_C'mon show me how much better you are. _

_Say you deserve some applause?_

'_Cause you're so much better…._

Ginny stood up abruptly. Hermione nodded to her encouragingly, watching a little aprehensively as Ginny marched out of the Hall.

Out the magnificent oak double doors, onto the grounds, past Hagrid's hut, and onto the Quidditch pitch, her eyes narrowed. She needed a plan, some way to show Cho that _she _could not be minipulated, something to show her that she was indeed competition.

And as she thought, she realized the anwer was right before her: The broom shed. Most kids took their brooms up to their dormitories, but a few of the students on the Quidditch team left theirs in the shed. Cho Chang was one of those few.

Ginny grinned: Though the shed could not be unlocked by magic unless it was a Quidditch Captain or Madam Hooch, but it seemed, as usual, that Wizards severely underestimated Muggles.

Her hand went up to her long, red curls, and she tugged at the bobby pin holding it back at the side, twirling it between her fingers and mentally thanking Gred and Forge.

She inserted it in the rusty old lock, wiggled it, and..._click_!

Sucess.

"_Lumos_," she whispered, and her wand responded, allowing a small sphere of light at it's tip to penetrate the darkness that had surrounded her when she'd pulled the shed door mostly closed.

She swept her wand in a wide arch, illuminating the rack that held a few of the Ravenclaw team's broomsticks. The name _Cho Chang_ was scrawled on a label over one of the hooks, indicating who the Cleansweep hangining below belonged to.

Ginny contemplated it for a moment, allowing her _Fred-and-George_ side take over her mind.

_Nothing too over-the-top, I don't want to be cruel...nothing to actually _harm _the broomstick, nothing that would be considered foul play in the next match...something easily enough undone, but only if you know the exact counter..._

Finally, the little redhead smirked and exited the shed. She'd have her chance the next day at breakfast. Besides, the Ravenclaws played the next morning, and she needed time to have a quick talk with her most mischievous brothers.

Fred and George didn't seem surprised at all when she pulled them aside in the common room that night and requested a product they had just been testing out, something with the potential to, as they put it,"Bring much glee and laughter to the user, and frustrate the bloody hell out of the vict - erm - _recipiant _of the prank. All in good fun, of course!"

"What have you got in mind, Gin?" Fred inquired as the twins plopped themselves on either arm of her chair, leaning in conspiritorially with identical looks of troublesome delight on their faces.

"Nothing too big, and it'll only effect one person," Ginny replied innocently.

"Ahh!" the two miscreants exclaimed in unison, their tones sage and understanding. "We _see_. _That_ one person, eh?"

Then and there, Ginny resigned herself to the fact that she would never, ever be able to hide anything from her twin brothers.

The next morning dawned fair and bright, though the winds were a bit stronger than perhaps desired. As everyone filed down to breakfast, chatting with amiability that one only aquires just before a Quidditch match, Ginny hurried off from Hermione and the Carson twins, stopping only to give Fred a quick good-morning hug as she passed him, and breaking away with a new weight in the pocket of her Hogwarts robes.

After exiting the throng of people on their way to the Great Hall, Ginny found herself quite alone in the eerily-quiet Entrance Hall. Hogwarts, she decided, should never be quiet. It seemed too...lonely. It should always teem with noise and activity, pranks and misdeeds, laughter and chatter and movement.

Shivering slightly and hoping Filch had decided he was too hungry to prowl the doors this morning, Ginny rounded the corner and found herself in front of the heavy doors.

Ginny's hair fell around her shoulders as she pulled out a pin from it, sliding it into the keyhole and flicking it around, searching for that spot that would cause her plan to click into place.

The door swung open, and Ginny slipped inside, withdrawing the small vial filled with a sand-like substance and stepping towards Cho's broom.

She uncorked the bottle and gently trickled the powder over the broom before sliding the vial back into her cloak before stepping back slightly and watching with great satisfaction as the handle of the broomstick disappeared smoothly and abruptly from sight. Moments later, with a spectacular flash, it reappered, and the half the tail twigs vanished.

Ginny giggled as she imagined Cho attempting to find - and then mount and ride a broom when parts of it kept disappearing. Finally, she tucked a small container of the powder that would reverse it on the shelf above Cho's broom with a simple note spellotaped to it:

_Get rid of your attitude, Cho. It's unbecoming of The Boy Who Lived's girlfriend._

_F.F.W., G.G.W., and G.M.W. send their regards._

With that final touch, Ginny slipped out of the shed and closed the door snuggly. She heard the lock click behind her, and dashed back up to the castle, entering it just as the tide of students arrived to carry her back out.

Hermione, Fred, and George reached her, and Hermione whispered, "Did it go all right?" as George inquired, "Did the Inconsistant Invisibility Inducer work?"

"Yes, and yes. Oh, and you guys need to find a better name," Ginny added to her brothers with a snicker. "That one is just awkward."

The three caught up with Harry and Ron, who were chatting about Ravenclaw's prospects against Gryffindor.

"Well...good luck then, Ron, Gin," Hermione said nervously, hugging Ginny and giving Ron what could only barely pass for an embrase, which they both pulled away from with faces the colour of the Gryffindor team's robes.

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look full of meaning and exasperation as Fred and George cooed playfully.

"Gee, Hermione, you could be a Weasley all ready with that blush," Fred chirped, ducking the book she'd attempted to hit him with.

"Abysmal aim, though," George said distastefully. "No good at Quidditch, either...Oh well, at this rate, we have pleanty of time to fine-tune you before Ronnikins finally gets off his arse!"

With that, they were off, leaving the others in a painfully uncomfortable silence in which Ginny and Harry attempted to contain their laughter, and Ron and Hermione pretended studiously that the other didn't exist.

But there was no time for responses of any sort, as at that moment, they passed the large broom shed.

And at that moment, there was a scream of frustration from within.

Hiding her smile from Harry and Ron, Ginny turned to Hermione and whispered, "I told you it would work!"

A very red-faced Cho stormed out, holding a fully-functional broom in one hand, and an empty blue vial and crumpled note in the other.

"Weasley!" she hissed angrily.

"Serves you right. Drop the attitude with me, Cho. I did nothing to you, and honestly, Harry could do better," Ginny murmured back before marching into the Gryffindor girls' changing rooms, wearing a satisfied smile.

_She took him faster than you can say sabatoge..._

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><p><strong>AN: And _there_ is my new ending. *sigh* Finally. I was embarassed of this fic before. Now, I reckon it's a lot better, and the ending is less...er...pathetic. :)**

**Oh, one last thing: In a review, someone accused me of copying this off another author. Sorry if its similar, but I've never read anything like it. If the author has a complaint, please let me know in a PM. If anyone else knows a story similar to this, I'd appreciate you giving me the title and the author's name so that I can check it out and change mine enough that it is distinct that I did NOT copy anything. I assure you, I had no intentions to copy or plagerise anything. Thanks to that reviewer for notifying me, but I also ask if you must be so rude as to simply say "You copied this, and I've alerted the author."**

**~Ari**


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